With baby #2 arriving within weeks, we are thinking about shuffling the rides. Wife wants a higher room for ease of baby insertion to the vehicle. We were thinking of just replacing the Legacy (11 yr ownership, almost nothing has broken ever) with a Forester. But here in the SF Bay Area Foresters hold their value so much they become more expensive than 'luxury' SUVs. So maybe we will step to something slightly nicer. Used, under $20K. My considerations: Must be AWD otherwise why even get a SUV?
VW Tauoreg - sorta meh, except for the Type R appearance package. I like that one. Smallish but upside of agility and GTIness. Is the rear seat/door access too small? Is the actual storage behind seats too small?
Q5 - nice ride, might be too wide for our parking spot. Gas mileage is not stellar, around town the 2.0T and V6 appear similar, but I would lean towards 2.0T since it gets decent highway mileage. But if the V6 vs 2.0 is not much different in the real world, the V6s are possible because less expensive.
Mercedes GLK 350 - these are really affordable for a nice ride. Perfect size in my book, but... holy crap the gas mileage sucks. 16mpg city, that means 12 on a bad day. My 71 Monte Carlo got better mileage. In the big picture it is not about the $$ spent as much as I just feel irresponsible driving a car that gets 22mpg highway. The GLK 250 Diesel gets awesome mileage but cost at least 50-70% more.
BMW X3 - two categories for me - older I6 with crummier mileage but really good price points vs new xdrive28i (4cyl turbo) with more updates and better mileage. I like the X3 looks and size and could be convinced to pick up a 6cyl for the right price.
Mazda CX5. I like these, my wife is indifferent and would just get the Forester. I am not seeing as many of these in my price range yet.
Honda and Toyota are boring bars of soap, not on the list. Nissan Rogue, not digging weak engine with CVT. Infinity, horrible mileage. Acura RDX, maybe but not sure. Lexus RX, don't know enough.
Any thoughts on these or other (non miata) recommendations? A Forester XT still might be the right fit, but I want to cover the bases (Outback not a match.) At the moment most driving is in city congestion, but it could change to involve a commute in crappy congested highways. There is a lot of German on that list and I have never owned German before.
(on related side self serving note, a relatively low mileage 68K SVT Focus is also going to hit the market in this process. DM me if interested)
Hive comments requested. Thanks.